<nettime> yugoslavia updates 2

["nettime's_indigestive_system" <nettime@Desk.nl>]

           Edward A Hirsch <thirsch+@andrew.cmu.edu>
                     Re: <nettime> yugoslavia updates
           honor <honor@va.com.au>
                     Help B92 Officially Launched
           Melentie Pandilovski <mpandil@soros.org.mk>
                     Developments in Macedonia - part 2
           "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
                     Day 2
           McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>
                     information war
           human being <schizo@sirius.com>
                     war for oil - oil for war (?)

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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:04:31 -0500 (EST)
From: Edward A Hirsch <thirsch+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: <nettime> yugoslavia updates

Excerpts from mail: 25-Mar-99 <nettime> yugoslavia updates by
nettime_indigestive_@Des 
> can be seen at http://www.b92.com..
 
this url is for "the only urban contemporary station in central
illinois."  while this may be of interest to anyone planning a roadtrip
to chicago in the near future, i think most of us will be more
interested to see http://www.b92.net.

thanks,
tad
institute for applied autonomy 

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Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 07:45:35 +0930
From: honor <honor@va.com.au>
Subject: Help B92 Officially Launched

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN YUGOSLAVIA

As NATO's crushing air strikes commenced across Yugoslavia, the state of
emergency declared by President Slobodan Milosevic began to bite hard for
residents of the stricken country.

Even before the first missiles were deployed, Yugoslavia's most important
independent media entity, radio station B92 was closed.  On the night of
24.3.99, Radio B92's Belgrade transmitter was confiscated by the Serbian
authorities. B92's editor-in-chief, Veran Matic, was arrested and held in
custody for over 8 hours.

In response to these extraordinary events, an international support group,
comprising writers, activists and media practitioners from across Europe
and around the world, has been founded to stage a campaign to help B92
continue to provide news updates about the situation in Yugoslavia as it
develops.

The campaign is centred in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, through the internet
service provider, XS4ALL and the cultural organisation, De Balie.

With the assistance of internet provider XS4ALL, B92 has broadcast its
radio programs on the internet since December 1996. These digital
broadcasts are picked up by the BBC World Service and retransmitted via
satellite. Through a network of local radio stations, the programs of B92
can be heard throughout Serbia.  Despite repeated attempts by the
authorities to silence the station, this method has ensured that B92 has
been able to provide up-to-date news about developments within Yugoslavia
to many media entities across the country. The support of XS4ALL has
ensured that, in spite of Yugoslavia's repressive information laws, B92 has
been able remain operative.

Despite this support, the current crisis situation in Yugoslavia means that
the possibilities of B92 continuing its independent news service will be
limited even further.  The recently founded support group intends to take
measures to distribute news by and about B92, from Amsterdam.  For this
purpose a special website has been established: http://helpB92.xs4all.nl

B92 is the backbone of the independent news service in Yugoslavia.  Without
immediate financial support this last source of independent news for the
inhabitants of this region is endangered. A fund raising campaign is being
started by the support group, with the objective of sending money and
equipment to B92 and other independent radio stations in Serbia and Kosovo.

There are four key ways that you can assist the group in its support of B92.

1) Link to our website:

http://helpb92.xs4all.nl

By using the logo from the website and promote the spreading of this logo
in any way you can.

Also link to the B92 website:

http://www.b92.net


2) Help us raise funds for B92 and other endangered independent news
services from Serbia and Kosovo. The special account number that has been
opened for donations is 7676.

International money orders are payable to:

Press Now
Kleine Gartmanplantsoen
10  1017 RR Amsterdam
the Netherlands


International bank transfers can be sent to:

Postbank Amsterdam
Swift address:
INGBNL2A Account number: 7676
in the name of: Press Now  Kleine Gartmanplantsoen
10 1017 RR Amsterdam
the Netherlands


3) Distribute the press release about the fundraising campaign to your
local media.

4) Sign the guestbook on the website if you want to express your individual
support or, if you represent an organisation that wants to become part of
the support group, mail us more details about the organisation and nature
of the support offered, preferably accompanied by a small logo in
gif-format to include on our website.


The Help B92 Team is:

B92: 				http://www.b92.net/
De Balie: 			http://www.balie.nl/
De Digitale Stad: 		http://dds.nl/
Next 5 Minutes: 		http://www.n5m.org/
Press Now: 			http://www.dds.nl/~pressnow/
radioqualia (Australia): 	http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au/
De Waag (MONM): 		http://www.waag.org/
XS4ALL: 			http://www.xs4all.nl/


r   a   d   i   o   q   u   a   l   i   a


                   ((o))

audio
	-> modulation

radioqualia@va.com.au
http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au/

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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 23:42:54 +0100 (MET)
From: Melentie Pandilovski <mpandil@soros.org.mk>
Subject: Developments in Macedonia - part 2

After entering in the yard of the American embassy
in Skopje some of the present youth started smashing its windows.
Several embassy or NATO jeeps were damaged.
The demonstrators were shouting in favor of Yugoslavia,
Russia and Macedonia and waiving with SFRJ (ex-Yugoslavia) flags,
and singing the Yugoslav anthem "Hej Sloveni".
This has not been seen in Skopje for a long time. 
It reminded a lot of the All - Yugoslav spirit of the 70ies and 80ies.
The demonstrators then proceeded affront of the 
German and British Embassy where they continued to protest 
in a similar manner. Witnesses say that the police shot smoke grenades
and tear gas in the air, and prevented the demonstrators to enter into the building. 
The prime minister Georgievski addressed the Macedonian public
on TV accusing the Macedonian media of an anti-NATO campaign and 
confirmed the firm pro-NATO direction of the Macedonian government and
stressing the guarantees of NATO for Macedonia. However he said that the 
Western allies were so far only verbally preventing the possible humanitarian
catastrophe in Kosovo and Souther Serbia, and that if it happens the West is to be blamed. 
The demonstrators were not very impressed loudly saying that the threat for Macedonia
is on the contrary NATO and demanded the Prime Minister to speak to them directly 
which hasn't happened yet. 
Demonstrations stopped after some time.
Larger demonstrations with participants from all of Macedonia
expected to continue tomorrow noon.
The minister of interior Trajanov accused the demonstrators of 
being very aggressive and said that Macedonia remains neutral 
in the conflict.
As a result quite many policemen are infront of the embasies guarding them during the night.
Otherwise people are cautious and storing food supplies.  
Streets are now calm except for white helicopters 
(I think it is UNPREDEP which is still around)
circling extremely frequently around the center of Skopje 
and creating awful noise during the night .

Melentie 
 
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 23:10:57 +0000
Subject: Day 2

The factory where Yugo cars and ammo for Yugoslav Army were made, 
Zavodi Crvena Zastava in Kragujevac was set on flames yesterday. Is 
this was done in 1991, thousands of lives in Croatia, Bosnia and 
Kosovo might been saved.. About 40 other military targets were hit 
around Yugoslavia. Civilian casualties were minimal (around 10), and 
apparently just one bomb hit a private home. Three MIGs who dared 
challenge allied air force were shot down.

Tonight another 20 cruise missiles were launched and B2s are sent 
back. The only worry is would NATO succeed in destroying Yugoslav 
military potential to fight before Yugoslav military succeed in 
destroying Kosovo Albanian potential to self-adminsitration: as NATO 
raids ceased in the morning, Yugoslav Army in Kosovo went in business 
of abducting Albanian professionals, intelectuals and public figures.

The incessant yammering about sovereignty is gibberish from my 
perspective. I believe that a country that treats UN declaration of 
human rights, Geneva convention and similar charters with sarcastic 
disdain, should be stripped of its sovereignty the same way like a 
Congressman who kills is stripped of his immunity. Protection of 
international law applies to those who uphold the international law. 
Milosevic is a war criminal. It is sad that Serbian people have to 
endure this fear of being hit by a bomb (should the sattelite 
navigation go askance), as it was sad that many Germans had to die in 
Berlin and Dresden for Hitler's folly, and it is commending that NATO 
is careful to minimize civilian casualties.

ivo

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Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 16:02:59 +1100 (EST)
From: McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>
Subject: information war


zczc
*aus*edued*
catchline:information war

Information War
McKenzie Wark
Friday, 26 March 1999

Now that the war in Europe is on in earnest, so too is the 
information war. Watching television newscasts the day 
after NATO launched its first air strikes, what struck me 
was that news airtime played host to another kind of air 
strike. This was not news, this was the simulation of news.

Nearly all channels carried images of what we are told are 
Tomahawk cruise missiles being launched from ships, and 
what we are told are images of B2 bombers. Then we cut to 
images of something burning in what we are told is 
Belgrade, or some other site in Serbia -- little brightly 
coloured maps give a crude approximation of locations.

These reports were all vague and sketchy, except 
concerning the type of weapons used. These details, like 
the images of the weapons of war, clearly come from 
military sources. The editing creates the impression that 
the missile or the bomber is the one that creates the 
damage in the following shot. 

Given the way these montages conjure impressions of 
NATO power, its really quite understandable that the Serbs 
should try to prevent journalists from filming the results 
of the air strikes. Those images that photojournalists and 
camera crews have transmitted to the west are clearly 
being used in the west for propaganda purposes. 

So too are those eerie images of bunkers being blown up in 
Iraq, the use of which clearly has nothing to do with the 
facts of this war and everything to do with creating the 
fantasy of the destructive power of the air strike. When a 
news program cuts together an image of a cruise missile 
launch with an image of an Iraqi bunker blowing up, we 
reach the surreal situation where *neither* image is 
actually of an air strike against Serbia, yet both are 
presented as if as visual 'proof'. 

The newspapers don't necessarily fair much better. Last 
Friday both the Australian and the Sydney Morning 
Herald carried the same photo, which the former claimed 
showed damage to a Serbian aircraft factory, the latter a 
*military* aircraft factory. The picture shows a litter of air 
conditioning ducts, light fittings and what are clearly 
*civilian* planes. 

Meanwhile, talking heads conduct their own war. Video 
shot in Russia, Serbia, America, England show leaders 
who appear to be talking to each other as much as to their 
respective national publics. International news becomes 
the site of a subtle verbal conflict. Global media vectors 
make possible not only the fictional war stories favoured 
by the evening news, but equally entertaining tales 
composed by duelling statesmen. 

That truth is the first casualty of war is now a truism. 
Broadcasters no longer feel obliged even to identify the 
military or government sources of much of their video. 
But perhaps this simulation of news of war is really just a 
heightened form of the fictional nature of news in general, 
in which video and press handouts feed a voracious 
demand for stories with the comforting illusion of reality 
about them.

Even from this sceptical point of view, it still matters, 
perhaps matters even more, that the information war 
means the shutting down of alternative claims to fabricate 
images and stories. Last week, the Serbian government 
confiscated the transmitter of Radio B92. The station's 
editor in chief, Veran Matic, was held in police custody for 
8 hours. 

Broadcast media vectors are easy for governments to 
control, due to their centralised means of information 
transmission. The laptop, the modem, the cell phone and 
the satellite are making it hard for either side to have 
complete control over the manufacture of wartime reality. 
Since 1996, B92's critical view of the Serbian government 
has also been available via the Dutch internet service 
Xs4all.  These digital broadcasts are sometimes picked up 
by the BBC World Service and retransmitted via satellite. 
A network of local radio stations in Serbia then rebroadcast 
the B92 signal. 

Media activists around the world are now working to 
maintain not only B92 but other independent media from 
Serbia and Kosovo. The web site http://helpB92.xs4all.nl 
has more details -- and an urgent call for help in 
maintaining the free flow of information from diverse 
sources under these conditions of information war.

According to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 
Serbian media has been drafted for the information war, 
and in perhaps an even less subtle way than in the west. 
The Institute's monitoring points to the effective used of 
vox pops -- interviews with ordinary people in the street -- 
and of opinion polls, to create the impression of unified 
Serbian support for the war. The Institute also has its 
criticisms of B92, which it claims has done an excellent job 
in terms fusing a variety of news sources, but which 
inserts anti-government editorialising too. (See 
http://www.iwpr.net). 

I'm not convinced that news in wartime is necessarily 
more fabricated than news in peacetime. What strikes me 
as the real problem is that the process of fabricating 
coherent flows of image and story becomes polarised. The 
rival sides do their best to subordinate the news-making 
process to war aims, and in the process the range of 
perceptions and interpretations of events is reduced. 

No wonder wars always seem to go wrong. The process of 
producing and selecting facts to fit a story predetermined 
by the war aims of one side or the other seems to come up 
against increasing difficulties. The available images and 
facts increasingly fail to fit the story chosen in advance for 
them. Whether in Yugoslavia, or Iraq, or Somalia, or 
Afghanistan, the news story, as it progressed, seemed 
increasingly unable to account for the available facts. 

Boredom and another crisis somewhere else usually 
intervenes -- but notice, in retrospect, how mistaken the 
story propounded in the information war was in each of 
these cases. Saddam Hussein is still in power, despite the 
supposedly lethal accuracy of those smart bombs, the video 
images of which are being recycled now, for yet another 
war. 

This is why the efforts of xs4all to keep B92's views 
flowing matter -- as a form of resistance to the collapse of 
perspective that is the information war.

McKenzie Wark is the author of Celebrities, Culture and 
Cyberspace, published by Pluto Press, and is senior lecturer 
in media studies at Macquarie University.

nnnn


__________________________________________
"We no longer have roots, we have aerials."
http://www.mcs.mq.edu.au/~mwark
 -- McKenzie Wark 

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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 22:29:45 -0800 (PST)
From: human being <schizo@sirius.com>
Subject: war for oil - oil for war (?)


 is it possible that the 'moral imperative' is more base and profane
 than soley the humanitarian concerns for the ethnic Albanians? is
 it not possible that US National Security is threatened by the non-
 US controlled energy resources that will be primary to the world's
 energy markets in 2020. that is, long range strategic planning for
 the world's oil & natural gas pipelines to fuel the machine.usa ?

 ...

 CRUDE OIL AND OIL PRODUCTS

 "This, very important part of total CI's activities, is determined by
 strategically excellent position - laboratory and inspection facilities are
 placed beside the main crude oil pipeline in this part of Europe - Adriatic
 Pipeline - that links refineries from Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
 Yugoslavia as well as Hungary, Slovak and Czech Republic."

 http://www.croatiainspect.hr/crud_gb.htm



 GREEN LIGHT TO TRANS-CASPIAN NATURAL GAS PIPELINE

Turkmenistan has come round to supporting the Trans-Caspian natural gas
pipeline. Turkey is taking a big stride for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline to be
a major oil and gas transit terminal in the new century. The USA says the
project makes sense, but its support is still not certain at this point.
Turkeyís natural gas needs until 2020 are the backbone of these oil and
natural gas pipeline projects. "

 [http://www.turkpulse.com/green.htm] oct 2nd 98

"NEW GREAT GAME IS ENTERING DECISIVE PHASE

 Turkey's Republic Day would have been a milestone in the worldís energy
projections for the 21st century, but ongoing multilateral bargaining may
delay it a few weeks. Will Turkey and the United States continue the very
productive cooperation for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline hitherto or will it be
a sad parting of ways? If the latter what will it involve and how durable
is it likely to be? What are the Turkish reactions to and trump cards for
this New Great Game? "


 http://www.turkpulse.com/new3.htm oct 21st 98

 TURKEY BEING WOVEN WITH NATURAL GAS PIPELINES

   Natural gas pipeline projects have been given a spur to save Turkey from
the energy bottleneck in the new century. Natural gas will account for more
than a third of Turkeyís total energy consumption. Iran waives $245,000
fine a day for
 Turkeyís delay in completing the pipeline in time. The United States
suspects that Turkmen gas may arrive in Turkey via Iran and strongly
objects to it. Turkeyís basic policy is to diversify its natural gas, oil
and energy imports. Relations with Iran have been given a boost recently,
but it has not yet gone as far as tripartite cooperation including Syria,
as suggested by Tehran, because of dodgy document Damascus handed to Turkey
about the PKK. "

 "Americans try to prevent gas from Turkmenistan passing through Iran "

 http://www.turkpulse.com/turkey8.htm feb15th 99


bc

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